Christopher King’s first experience of hearing an Epiriot lament, by violinist Alexis Zoumbas, on a 78rpm recorded in 1926, sent him into a cathartic trance. Searching for a connection, Grammy-winning producer and curator King spent years researching and archiving music recorded between 1907 and 1960 from the rural hinterlands of mainland Greece and its islands. Several compilations of Epiriot music followed, and his critically-acclaimed book, Laments of Epirus received praise for drawing a wider interest into the forgotten sounds of demotic music, and into the evolution of song itself. For King, who hopes to find a permanent home in Greece for his archives, the haunting, guttural music of Epirus is both a “living link to antique Greek folkways” and a cathartic remnant of “a more ancient way of being”. This demotic Greek music may not be to everyone’s taste, concedes King, but copious amounts of tsipouro will convert most to its powerful pull.